High, Wide, and Handsome

In 1859, in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Doc Watterson's traveling medicine show burns down, and Grandma Cortlandt takes him and his daughter Sally in to work on her farm with her grandson Peter. Peter, meanwhile, drills for rock oil, dreaming of supplying the world with affordable oil. Sally and Peter soon fall in love, and he promises to build her a house on a hill among apple blossoms. Peter continues to drill until, during their wedding reception, he strikes oil and starts an oil boom on farms across the state. Soon, however, railroad magnate Walt Brennan, hoping to force the farmers to sell their oil-rich land to him, raises freight rates on his railroad. Peter, refusing to be part of Brennan's monopoly, works long hours to devise a scheme to defeat his foe and finally invents a pipeline. Brennan's friends, strangers to the small town, bring gambling and prostitutes to the local saloon, enraging the community. Brennan bids for a 20-mile stretch of land owned by saloon proprietor Joe Varese, which Peter needs for his pipeline. Varese's price is the Cortlandt hill, where Sally's house is to be built. Sally, meanwhile, has befriended saloon singer Molly, who has been ostracized by the church elders, and has come to Varese's bar to help her audition. When Peter sees Sally performing along with Molly, he is furious. Sally, in turn, is enraged when she discovers Peter has given her hilltop land to Varese and, tired of sitting at home waiting for Peter, runs away with Bowers Carnival along with her father. While Peter and the farmers work through the winter, forced to guard the pipeline from Brennan's night-time saboteurs, Sally's popularity as a singer grows. When Peter has only two days to complete three miles of pipeline, Brennan buys the bank that holds the mortgage on the refinery which Peter uses and threatens to pull the mortgage if the refinery grants Peter more time. Then, just after Sally receives an offer from Mr. Barnum to perform in New York, Molly tells her of Peter's trouble, and Sally races to Titusville, promising Peter to bring him help. As a few loyal men work with Peter to hang the pipeline over a hill, Brennan's men come with whips to destroy it, but Sally's circus friends arrive with elephants in time to defeat Brennan and finish the pipeline. As the circus leaves, Sally and Peter are reconciled. (oficjalny tekst dystrybutora)